Left Unity's "secret trial"

The tiny left-wing sect Left Unity founded on the basis of a short film by Ken Loach made the news recently as their ideological founder protested about his members being "witch-hunted" by the Labour Party for signing up as Labour supporters to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Many of them are in the process of being excluded, rightly so as they are after all members of a rival political party.

There is some talk of Left Unity being in a "state of collapse" as many of it's declining membership defect to the Labour Party. Meanwhile there has been a rather odd "secret trial" inside their organisation.

Like the Socialist Workers Party, Left Unity has it's own Disciplinary Committee which appears to have met in secret following a complain about anti-Semitism against on of it's members a certain Ian Donovan.

Ian Donovan is a rather odd individual and was expelled from the even smaller Communist Party of Great Britain for allegations of anti-Semitism. Donovan does have some rather strange views it has to be said.

Donovan believes there is  a Jewish "pan-national bourgeoisie" acting as the "vanguard" of the ruling class.

Sounds seriously close to the International Zionist Conspiracy that the Far-right, the anti-imperialists and the Islamists prattle inanely about.

Now remember Left Unity actually had some trouble with some individuals who consider ISIS to be "anti-imperialist" (see here) so the fact that this complaint was dealt with so secretly even the accused wasn't aware of the investigation says a lot about the way these lefty types conduct themselves.

Now I have absolutely no sympathy for Donovan whose targeting of Jews in this fashion does indeed take him beyond the Rubicon of respectability, but the fact he has these views and was found "not guilty" in a private session with no accountability to even their own organisation worries me.

I have long argued that whilst most of these types might not actually be anti-Semites, they do not take anti-Semitism seriously and even as in the case of Jeremy Corbyn even appear with Islamic anti-Semites from Hamas and Hezbollah on platforms without a second thought.

For most of the far left Jews are to be ignored. Why? Simply because they think Israel should be destroyed as this will somehow help bring down "imperialism" and then capitalism".

The fate of several million Jews does not concern them in the far-lefts ideologically blinkered world.

It seems Left Unity has fallen into this murky world view. Donovan's views are somewhat unsavoury to say the least and should not be compatible with any form of "progressive" politics. Donovan himself is gloating, issuing a leaflet proclaiming the "acceptability" of his views.

His exoneration by Left Unity's so-called "Disciplinary Committee" is just another nail in the credibility of the far-left in general. The lefts "anti-racism" is and probably always has been selective" depending on their latest opportunist ideological turn.

Meanwhile Donovan writes in the latest issue of the Weekly Worker:

I have, after a period of political discussions, been invited to join the editorial board of the Trotskyist publication Socialist Fight, which I have agreed to do. As part of the broadening of the political basis of this publication, whose founders are internationally aligned with a particular Trotskyist faction, the Liaison Committee for the Fourth International..

Socialist Fight is a micro-group of around half a dozen old hacks from the old Workers Revolutionary Party.

The far left seems to wallow in it's own self-importance and impotency.

International Liaison Committee indeed.

Meanwhile the fight against all forms of racism including anti-Semitism must continue.

The misalliance between the anti-imperialist brigade and the Islamists is a danger that must be confronted.